Chapter 1: A Real Good Licking

‘We were sitting in the lounge, mum, dad, me and Amy. Mum continued, ‘I sat on the side of grandad’s bed and told him he looked very happy.’ ‘I am,’ he said, ‘I’ve had a lovely long and happy life, and I have a wonderful family. These last few years the three of you have looked after me royally. Thank you.’

‘I just smiled at him,’ she told us. ‘Then I got up and picked his cup up. As I turned away, he suddenly spoke. I looked back at him and when he had finished, he just gave a sigh and closed his eyes. I thought he had gone back to sleep at first.’

‘But something didn’t feel quite right, so I went back and looked closer. I couldn’t see his chest moving so I felt for a pulse. There wasn’t one. I did a few other checks then made a note of the time. He died at ten past eleven.’

‘I came down and told dad, then rang the doctor. He said it was expected, and it sounded a nice way to go. He knows I’ve had some medical training, so he accepted my opinion that he was dead. He’s going to call here in the next few hours to certify him.’

‘Tell Stephen what his last words were.’ dad told her. Mum looked at me and smiled, he said, ‘Tell Stephen I love him.’ Amy burst into tears, and I put my arm around her. ‘What a lovely thing to say.’ she said looking up at me. I couldn’t speak.’

‘After a while I stood up. ‘I’ll just go up and say goodbye.’ I told them. Amy said, ‘Shall I come with you, or would you prefer to be alone?’ ‘That would be nice,’ I said holding my hand out to her. ‘He liked you a lot.’ She took my hand, and we went upstairs.’

‘At his door, I asked Amy if she’d ever seen a dead body before. When she said no, I told her that if it upset her to just come out, I wouldn’t mind. She held my hand tight, and we opened the door. Grandad was lying on his back, his head lifted up a little on his usual three pillows.’

‘He looked so peaceful. I walked round to the side of the bed and looked down at him. I felt so sad to lose him, yet so glad that I’d gone to see him last night. I leaned over and kissed his forehead. ‘Goodbye grandad,’ I said, ‘Thanks for everything you taught me.’

‘Amy was stood at my side, still holding tight to my hand. As she looked at grandad she said, ‘You know, I’d swear he was smiling at us.’ I looked again and she was right. I smiled to myself; I was the only one who knew why he had died happy.’

‘We went back downstairs. As we had lunch round the table it started off very sombre. ‘Grandad and I had a talk about dying recently,’ I told them. ‘He said he’d had a long and happy life, and death was the end of it. Don’t waste time mourning me,’ he told me, ‘Make the most of your life and enjoy it. I promised him I would.’

‘After that the atmosphere seemed to return to normal. We hadn’t long finished when the doctor arrived. He was only upstairs a few minutes then came down and wrote out a death certificate. Apparently because he’d seen the doctor recently and had been expected to die, there was nothing else needed.’

‘After the doctor had gone, mum rang the undertaker who arrived an hour later. Grandad was taken away discretely in an ordinary black van. Dad went down to the Registrar of Births and Deaths at the Town Hall and registered his death.’

‘There were no other relatives, grandad had outlived them all. So, we were fitted into a slot at the crematorium a week later. As grandad hadn’t been religious everything was very straight forward. There was mum and dad, Amy and me, plus two neighbours who had known grandad since he came to live with us.’

‘I stood up and said a few words about all the things that grandad had taught me that would stay with me for life. ‘I loved him and will miss him,’ I said, ‘But we’re not here today to be sad, but to thank grandad for sharing his life with us.’

‘It was all over in fifteen minutes. The curtains closed round the coffin, and he was gone. We chatted with the neighbours when we came out, then the four of us went out for lunch. That night I’d gone up to bed and was remembering some of the many things grandad and I had done together.’

‘I was just about to put the light out when I remembered the box in the wardrobe. I went and fetched it, then sat up in bed with it. I opened it and lifted the tray out. Right at the bottom were two brown envelopes.’

‘One was very thick and labelled ‘WILL’ in big letters. The other one just had ‘Stephen’ on it. I opened the one addressed to me. ‘My dear Stephen,’ it said, ‘When you read this letter, I’ll be dead. I just want you to know that the love and friendship we have shared throughout the years have meant so much to me.’

‘Open my will when you are with your mum and dad. Everything else in this box is yours. Do as you wish with the contents and dump anything of no interest. I hope you will remember me, not as someone who has died, but by what I hope are many happy memories of our time together.

All my love,

Grandad. X’

‘I looked through everything else in the box. I put the condoms to one side to throw away before I showed the box to mum and dad. In the tray making up the top of the box were all sorts of bits that presumably had meant a lot to grandad.’

‘I looked through them all and decided that there was nothing else that might cause upset to mum and dad. Then I looked in the bottom of the box. There was a slim photo album. I opened it and discovered photos of me.’

‘The first one was in mum’s arms just after I’d been born. The next fourteen were all taken on each of my birthdays. I remembered my fourteenth birthday and grandad taking the last photo. It hadn’t occurred to me that I’d never seen the photo afterwards.’

‘There were other photos taken when we were doing things together. One of me swimming just after he had taught me to swim. One diving into the swimming pool just after he taught me to dive. One sparring in the boxing ring at the gym. Another when we had gone hiking together. So many happy memories.’

‘In the front of the cover grandad had written, ‘My first grandson, Stephen,’ along with my date and time of birth. Grandad hadn’t lived with us for the first part of my life, but he had always turned up on my birthday. He always brought a good but educational present. I knew that by now mum and dad would be in bed, so I put it all aside until morning.’

‘The next day I went down and put the box on my seat at the table. Then I went outside and put the condoms in the bin. I had wrapped them up in tissue and put them in an old sock. Returning to the table, I told mum and dad about the box.’

‘They read his letter to me and looked at the photo album. They were both very moved. I showed them everything else in the box. Dad recognised a few of the things and was able to tell me their significance to grandad.’

‘Then I handed dad the envelope marked ‘WILL’. He opened it and put the contents on the table. There were two small books and a two-page document. Dad read out the will. Grandad thanked us all for taking him in and for looking after him so well.’

‘He said that when he had sold his own house to come and live with us, he had put the money into a savings plan linked to something called a unit trust. That he left to mum and dad. ‘Over the years, I’ve saved money as well.’ he had written.’

‘Particularly in the latter years when I couldn’t do as much. That is in the building society. I leave everything in that account to my grandson Stephen. I am not leaving it in trust until he is older, as life is far too short. I hope he gets as much enjoyment out of spending it as he has given to me.’

‘Dad lifted up the first of the two books. He read it and passed it round. It had just one entry showing a deposit of ten thousand pounds eight years ago when he sold his house. Inside the cover the bank book said, ring this number for an up-to-date balance. Grandad had written the password underneath.’